Force feeding?

[Mumkins]

I posted last week about our snake who hasn't eaten since we got him 7 weeks ago. Some suggested force feeding may be a good idea. I'm having trouble finding a thread that say the 'how to' of it, just mostly discussing that they did it or want to. Can someone link me to a good thread or tell me how to?

[Nanci]

Use a very small prey item until you get the hang of it. Even then, small things go down easier.

1. Hold the snake just behind the head with your left hand. (The snake may twist and musk- forget about that. Just worry about holding the head still). Hold the pink with your right hand. The pink should be wet. (You probably don't want to use slit pinks until you are comfortable with assist-feeding- slit pinks are likely to burst open and then are very hard to get down. This usually results in stopping everything for a bath of the snake and you). Press the pink up against the snake's mouth, slightly to one side, and hold it there. If you are very lucky, the snake will open its mouth, and you can slide the pink in.

2. If not, press the side of the snake's mouth, near the corner, with a blunt wooden object like a chopstick or a bamboo skewer for making kebobs. The snake should easily open its mouth. Slide the stick through to the other side, so the snake can't close its mouth. Still holding the snake behind the head with your left hand, let go of the stick and take a pink and slide it over or under the stick to the back of the snake's throat. The airway is in the front- you can't miss the esophagus at the back. (When you have the snake's mouth open, it may, in reaction to food, unhinge the joints at the front of the lower jaw and the sides. It looks like you have broken the jaw- very scary looking, but if you have been very gentle, you know that the jaw is fine, the snake is just unhinging it to fit the prey in. They do this even if the prey is small enough to just go down).

3. Remove the stick. (If you couldn't get the pink to go quite far to the back of the mouth, you can very gently push it back farther with the blunt end of the stick). Hold the snake's mouth shut with your right hand. Use your left hand to gently massage the pink down. The snake may try to spit the prey out- as long as you can keep the mouth shut and continue massaging, it _will_ go down.

4. Once the pink is down the throat, out of sight in the mouth, no tail hanging out, you are safe to let go of the mouth and hold the snake gently and continue to massage the prey down to the stomach. Be on guard, though, then snake can _still_ regurge the pink on the way down. I gently hold the snake for several minutes until I am sure the prey is going to stay down, then replace the snake in its viv.

Nanci

[Cat_Eyed_Lady]

You can also look for the thread "feeding the unwilling" .... Jaxom has some instructions there too :) Just be really careful... its so stressful on both you and the snake. Good luck :)

[Mumkins]

Thank you both:) My husband does the feeding. I will share this with him.

[snake5007]

I use large mouse tails to force feed babies. They go down a lot easier and you get fewer regurges. The downside is that you have to feed them more often than if they were on pinks.